This article was published in the Plymouth Herald daily newspaper on the 8th August 2023, strangely cutting-out references to uranium tipped radioactive shells being used in Ukraine. My unexpurgated version is here below:

August 9th commemorates the dropping of an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, three days after a similar nuclear detonation destroyed Hiroshima in 1945. The Japanese Government had voted to surrender on 20th June that year, but the bombing continued. The United States and key Allies wanted to prove their dominant power to the entire world.

These two bombs have been responsible for around 350,000 premature deaths over the years since.

Contrary to urban mythology, most do not die instantly from a nuclear blast. True, maybe hundreds near to “ground-zero”, the epicentre of the explosion will be vaporised, many thousands will spend a few minutes simultaneously burning and asphyxiating in the heat blast as it pushes out, sucking-up oxygen, and many more will take hours or days to die in agony as the radioisotopes burn their bodies from within. 

Then, over years and many decades, the radioactive particles mutate living tissues, from foetus to adult, to invoke all manner of cell-malforming cancers, ensuring years of ill-health and shortened lives, genetic mutations passed-on from one generation to the next. Nuclear weapons are unlike all others.

The notion, popularised by the cinematic splendour of the new “Oppenheimer” film, that a nuclear blast is just a bigger bang is nonsense. The release of radioactive particles produces long-lasting toxic pollution to all life on earth. Eighty years-on from the splitting of the atom, human-made radioisotopes have infected all land, water and air, the current use of “depleted uranium” shells in Ukraine polluting the “breadbasket of Europe” with radioactive dust.  

We have adapted to live with, and die by, the sickness it has caused.

The idea that the use of nuclear weapons represents the entire wipeout of all humanity is not realistic. Nuclear war is the highest state of barbarism, creating a dystopian future for humanity. 

It is suggested that there has been no use of nuclear weapons since Nagasaki because of the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction, a term with the most suitable of acronyms. It is said that the use of one nuclear device would instantly trigger the launch of Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles carrying thousands of warheads ten-times the size of the “Little Boy” dropped upon Nagasaki. The need to “strike first” in order to survive requires such early warning and precision timing that launch has been largely handed-over to computers to fire the starting gun.

There are currently more than 12,000 nuclear warheads immediately ready for use by missiles, aircraft, ships and submarines. The figures once again obscure the reality. There are few scenarios in which most of them would be fired. War simulations and practice runs today focus upon limited nuclear exchanges, including use of so-called “low-yield” battlefield warheads (little-less than the size of the Nagasaki explosion).

The idea would be to quickly “take-out” the core military infrastructure of the enemy using a couple of 5-10km radius explosions. Strategists admit that it’s impossible to accurately model exactly what would happen. Could a nuclear State get away with “limited use” as did the USA in 1945? It’s on all their agendas.

The current construction of a new generation of “strategic nuclear weapons” designed for “first use”, at the cost of hundreds of billions of pounds of tax-payers money, is evidence that all sides are getting ready. 

The concern of unleashing Armageddon is no longer preventing nuclear war. 

Such nuclear escalation would probably see billions of human beings perish, but many billions more will continue into a toxic and debased future unworthy of humanity’s potential, let alone the natural environment. We must not allow it. 

Nuclear weapons are illegal under international law as weapons of mass destruction. Decades of anti-nuclear campaigning has further won the International Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, with more than 100 countries now signed-up. Anti-nuclear campaigners are neither deranged nor deluded – we can win a nuclear-free world, the opposition to nuclear weapons growing daily.

The problem remains, the nuclear-armed States won’t sign, and nor will the countries most enthusiastic about acquiring such power. The UK is spending at least £5,000,000,000 each year on new generation of “Trident” nuclear weapons systems, the total allocated £210,000,000,000 representing money diverted from our health and wellbeing, and the climate crisis.

The United States is now placing its nuclear weapons back on UK soil, ensuring we will be a first strike target for any enemy.

In 2023 this is no side issue. We need mass engagement, the active participation of millions of us through protest, petitioning and targeted voting, to force the politicians to dismantle the nuclear arsenals. In 2023 this is no longer a side issue. The imminent use of nuclear weapons has never been higher. The actions of anti-nuclear campaigners never more vital.